Electronic circuits that are designed to operate at low supply voltages are common in the electronics industry. Current trends toward a reduction in circuit operating voltage dictate a corresponding reduction in the maximum voltage that the circuitry can withstand without incurring damage. Such damage can arise from overvoltage conditions caused by electrostatic discharge, inductively coupled spikes, or other transient conditions. Hence, demand presently exists for transient-voltage suppressors having low breakdown voltages, for example, voltages in the 3-6 volt range.
One traditional device for overvoltage protection is the reversed biased p+n+ Zener diode. These devices perform well at higher voltages, but run into problems, specifically large leakage currents and high capacitance, at low breakdown voltages. For example, as breakdown voltages are reduced from 12 volts to 6.8 volts, leakage currents for these devices dramatically increase from about 1 μA to about 1 mA.
In response to these problems, low-voltage punch-through transient-voltage suppressors have been developed. Specifically, as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,511 to Semtech Corporation, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, a transient suppressor device is described which comprises a n+p−p+n+ punch-through diode. Such devices can have low breakdown voltages, while having leakage and capacitance characteristics superior to those of certain prior-art transient suppressors. In contrast to, for example, Zener diodes, which provide overvoltage protection based on avalanche breakdown (i.e., breakdown caused by impact ionization that leads to carrier multiplication), these devices provide overvoltage protection as a result of punch-through. (Punch-through can be readily illustrated with reference to a transistor. For a transistor, punch-through occurs when a depletion region becomes as wide as the base of the transistor. Typically, punch-through occurs in a bipolar transistor where the depletion region of the collector junction of the transistor reaches the emitter junction on the opposite side of the base layer at voltages below the avalanche breakdown voltage of the collector junction.) The n+p−p+n+ devices of U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,511 are also claimed to be superior to other transient-voltage suppression devices, specifically n+pn+ uniform-base punch-through devices, which are claimed to suffer from poor clamping characteristics at high currents. Unfortunately, n+p−p+n+ devices, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,511 have current-voltage characteristics that are not symmetric. As a result, in order to make bi-directional transient-voltage suppressors, Semtech proposes a circuit of two of their transient-voltage suppressors in anti-parallel. Obviously, this arrangement adds expense in that it requires more than one device to achieve its intended function.